Photo: Wenn
U2's Adam Clayton has said that the band have finished '70 per cent' of their next album.
In this month's Q Magazine Clayton reveals that the band are nearing completion of their 14th studio album, set to be titled 'Songs of Experience', following the conventions of both William Blake and David Axelrod.
Clayton told the magazine (via NME) "I think we've probably got 70 per cent of the material that we think will go onto it. The 30 per cent that we're missing I think we'll be able to generate relatively easily. But the amount of energy it will take to refine the perspective of those songs is hard to predict."
Asked whether the band would be tempted to repeat the feat of digitally inserting the album into iTunes accounts worldwide, the bassist isn't convinced. "Y'know what, depending on how long it takes to be completed, there may be a whole new delivery method invented by then... I think we just have to wait and see. There'll be a bit of water under the bridge before we get to that point. But yeah, I think it would be a bit predictable to do the same thing. And y'know, the law may have changed by then and we'll have to find some other way of doing it."
Bono recently announced that the band have come up with a way of combatting piracy. In their Time cover story Bono claims it "will prove so irresistibly exciting to music fans that it will tempt them again into buying music — whole albums as well as individual tracks." Bono claimed that this as-yet-unnamed format will be "an audiovisual interactive format for music that can’t be pirated and will bring back album artwork in the most powerful way, where you can play with the lyrics and get behind the songs when you’re sitting on the subway with your iPad or on these big flat screens. You can see photography like you’ve never seen it before."
This week, a small number of black vinyl copies of Songs Of Innocence have been quietly sent to various independent retailers ahead of its official release next month, in order to adhere to The Grammy's nomination rules which state an album must be bought commercially before 30 September.
Songs of Innocence was previously released at the beginning of September after being announced at an Apple Keynote, however by making the record appear on people's iTunes without their consent it was revealed it wouldn't qualify for the award until it went onsale physically.
Earlier this week Bono expressed his interest to play venues such as The O2 Arena in London when the band get around to touring the album, however no dates have been announced yet.
Below: Who will be the next big artist to drop a surprise album on iTunes?
